


Abduction

by Nikita



Series: Shape Series [2]
Category: The X-Files
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Jealousy, M/M, Misunderstandings, Poor Mulder, Poor Skinner, Unexplained Pregnancy (canon), alien torture, canon torture, delusional!Scully, emotional torture, h/c
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-14
Updated: 2013-08-14
Packaged: 2017-12-23 12:10:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/926249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nikita/pseuds/Nikita
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Truth was here. He was as close as he'd ever been to obtaining it. For some reason he was being given one last chance to vindicate himself and the pursuit for which he and so many others had sacrificed. It was as close to a religious experience as he would ever admit to.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> If you haven't seen the season finale of The X-Files season 7 this might not make sense. I don't bother rehashing the action/dialog from the episode - I move right on to the aftermath.

XXXX 

The moment he stepped off the plane in Oregon, Mulder's condition abruptly changed. The constant pain and weariness that had dogged him for so many months suddenly turned into a powerful *pressure*. He stumbled as the state of his mind shifted and changed, struggling to get his equilibrium back. Scully distractedly asked him if he was okay, fumbling with her luggage and purse. 

"Fine," he murmured, compensating for his imbalance and striding purposefully toward their rental car before she could notice his momentary disorientation. The disappearance of the pain brought new force and conviction that he was making the right decision in returning to the place it had all begun for the two of them as partners. 

The Truth was here. He was as close as he'd ever been to obtaining it. For some reason he was being given one last chance to vindicate himself and the pursuit for which he and so many others had sacrificed. It was as close to a religious experience as he would ever admit to. 

 

XXXX Abduction XXXX

 

An unidentified, yet undeniable object streaked across the sky, disappearing as quickly as it had appeared. Walter Skinner was barely aware that his heart was still beating as he stood in horrified silence. His throat burned from yelling something – a name – Mulder! 

“Oh my god…” he whispered. “They took him,” he said to the empty forest around him. “They fucking took him!” he yelled when no one and nothing answered him. 

He crashed through the forest, looking hopelessly for any last sign of the man who had so recently walked beside him. Nothing. There wasn’t a clue that just a few moments ago there had been another living breathing human being full of curiosity and determination. 

The person most important to him in the entire fucked up world. 

Skinner looked around once more at the grid of red beams crisscrossing the forest and turned back towards where they had parked the rental car. There was only one other person who would have an inkling as to what had been lost that night. 

 

X*X*X 

 

Mulder blinked at the harsh light and hazily thought he should raise a hand to block it, but the impulse of movement was lost somewhere between thought and action and he just as quickly forgot what he’d meant to do. He turned his head to the side and the world was slow in catching up. His vision blurred with the movement and it took some time before it cleared and solidified again. 

‘Drugs,’ he thought in some remote corner of his mind, ‘I’m drugged…’ For some reason that fact didn’t bother him as much as it should. He was more interested in the object now within his sight – a person. 

He squinted and tried to focus better. The person was a little blurry, but it was obviously a young woman lying on a table, she appeared to be naked. He blinked and tried to focus on her face. 

‘Scully?’ No – the hair was darker…brown…the woman was as still as death. 

Mulder tried to look past her, but could see only light. He turned his head to the other side – the movement making him dizzy as his vision swam and failed to keep up. He felt his stomach lurch and suddenly he was heaving. 

Cold fingers touched his head and shoulders as he was turned on his side, his vomit choking him. His world narrowed in focus as he tried to focus on breathing. 

//Response to drug less than optimal. Cease administration.// 

The words echoed in his mind, but he was too disoriented to understand. 

He was cold – he was in pain – he was sick. Where was he? 

The spasms eased and he breathed through his mouth to avoid the smell that now surrounded him, threatening to make his stomach churn again. Something rough wiped away the mess from his body and he was turned on his back once more. 

//Alert the Other – possible hybrid found.// 

Mulder squinted into the light once more and saw something gray move out of his vision. He tried to follow the movement, but his head was suddenly gripped by something cold and hard. He tried to move his arms and legs, but found they were being gripped, too. Panic raced through him and his heart began to beat frantically within his ribcage. His breaths came in gasps and he began to scream. 

“NOOOOOOOOO!!!!” 

 

X*X*X 

 

Walter stood uncomfortably by the hospital bed as Scully cried softly to herself. She’d turned her face away from him, but when he’d moved to step out of the room she’d asked him to stay. He glanced around the room and found a chair at the foot of the bed. He sat down quietly and stared at the blinking lights at the foot of the hospital bed. He was numb. 

He hadn’t been able to keep from crying as he’d told her he’d lost Mulder. Whether or not she found it odd that their former boss was so broken up over the news he couldn’t say. 

It was her revelation that she was pregnant that had absorbed his mind since then. 

He’d been shocked when she’d said it. Mulder had told him just how heartbroken she’d been to discover her infertility after her abduction. Walter had stuttered trying to switch gears from Mulder’s abduction to her pregnancy in order to ask her how it was possible. 

 

“Uh – I-I see…how…?” 

Scully smiled again, bigger this time. The tears in her eyes glistened with happiness. “I don’t know…I guess…I guess the last in vitro must’ve worked. The test said it had failed, but the lab must’ve made a mistake. I’m definitely pregnant,” she chuckled, but it was a strangled one. She was obviously still in shock over it. 

Walter shook his head slightly and tried to absorb the information. “So…you had been trying to get pregnant? I had no idea.” Walter wondered if Mulder had even known – surely he would have mentioned it to his lover. They’d spent all of their free time together – shared everything. 

Of course Scully had no way of knowing that. Walter suddenly wished he could take the last comment back, of course her former boss wouldn’t know about something so private going on in her life. 

If Scully thought it odd that he was shocked about his lack of knowledge, she gave no sign. She was still wrapped up in her own thoughts and feelings. 

“We had. I wanted a baby so much. Mulder knew I’d always wanted a family. I think he did, too…he never liked to talk about the future – our future - but I knew…I know…” her voice cracked and the tears of happiness turned into renewed sadness and she’d turned her face away from him to cry into her pillow. 

 

And that had been the moment his world dropped out from under him a second time. ‘We had.' 'Mulder knew.' 'A family.’ The words echoed in his mind as he stared hard at the blinking green and red lights on the footboard. 

After a few moments the crying died down to a wet snuffle and Walter stood and walked back to the side of the bed. 

“Agent Scully?” Scully sniffed loudly and turned to face him. 

“The baby…it’s Mulder’s?” he asked in as firm a voice as he could manage. 

She frowned slightly and put a hand protectively over her stomach. 

“Yes,” she said in a voice that brooked no refusal. 

Walter looked down to where her hand lay and swallowed hard. “I see. I have to go – I have a feeling I’ll be quite busy for the next few days. I’ll check in with you when I can. You’ll let me know if you need anything?” 

Scully looked concerned at his sudden coldness, but nodded. “Yes, thank you, sir. And if there’s anything I can do to help you-” 

“I’ll be fine, thank you,” he interjected brusquely. With a final nod he turned and left the hospital as fast as his legs could carry him. 

 

X*X*X


	2. Chapter 2

X*X*X

Thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump 

A warm wet world enveloped Mulder, cradling him. The world was quiet…soft…dark… Mulder was barely aware of his surroundings, but he knew something wasn’t right. He struggled in the warm liquid world, but his movements were slow, sluggish. His heart sped up as the panic set in – he couldn’t speak, couldn’t scream as the world around him suddenly dropped away and the liquid drained around him, exposing him to the shocking cold air outside. 

Mulder’s eyes flew open and he gasped as a horrible scraping, burning sensation came from an organic cord being pulled from his stomach and out his throat. He gasped again and began to cough; viscous green fluid came up. He spat it out and gagged, trying not to bring up his stomach contents as well. He was too distracted in his own misery to see the two forms step up next to him until one of them grabbed him roughly under his arm pits and pulled him to his feet. He couldn’t see the figure holding him up, but the one standing before him was alien bounty hunter he’d glimpsed in the light shining down in the forest. 

//Welcome// 

The word was spoken in his mind, but Mulder knew it was from the alien before him. 

“I hope your next words are: ‘We come in peace,’” Mulder croaked. 

X*X*X 

Walter glanced down the hall one last time before entering the apartment. It was dark inside except for the faint glow of the fish tank and an outside street lamp. He looked around the rooms that he had become so familiar with. This wasn’t the first time he’d come here when Mulder was missing and it was a sight he’d hoped never to see again. He much preferred the last time he’d visited – Mulder laughing on the couch as he watched some Sci-Fi channel special. Beers and popcorn had been strewn on top of the coffee table as Mulder tried to convince him to sit down and watch a particularly cheesy old Star Trek episode where Spock is abducted and loses his brain - “It’s a classic!”

Skinner turned away from the living room and headed into the bedroom. Mulder’s bed was a mess, as usual – a blue dress shirt lay on top of the sheets. Tossed there as he’d hurriedly packed for his trip to Oregon. His throat felt tight as he stared at the shirt and mussed sheets. Had it really only been four days ago that they’d lain there together? 

Walter reached out to pick up the shirt, but stopped just short of touching it. It would be wrong…it didn’t feel right to move anything that Mulder had touched. As if by leaving it the way it was his lover would come back and pick it up on his own if only it hadn’t been moved. He knew it was illogical and disturbingly reminiscent of the behavior displayed by those who cannot deal with the sudden death of a loved one, but it didn’t stop him from feeling that way. He moved past the bed and to the closet, taking only the suit he’d left there for overnighters and grabbing his few personal items from the bathroom sink and medicine cabinet. A part of him hurt to know he still had to deny the personal relationship he had with Mulder, but he knew that the last thing he needed right now was to give the Bureau another reason to railroad him from the investigation. Mulder needed him in the professional capacity right now, not as a broken lover. 

Taking one last look around the apartment for any other evidence of his existence, he vowed he wouldn’t come back until Mulder was there again to fill the silence. 

X*X*X 

Mulder closed his eyes against the pain and focused within himself and the growing abilities he could feel that were awakening. He wasn’t sure if the aliens had done something to him or if it was being on the ship itself, but his awareness of things outside his physical body was growing. He could feel the alien life that moved around the ship surrounding him, he could feel the slumbering human abductees in the deck below, and when he reached out – as far as he could – he could almost sense the flashes of emotions and thoughts from the people he loved most. 

Scully.  
Walter. 

They thought of him constantly, they were afraid, they were worried, they were angry. They fought against the darkness around themselves, but they fought alone – two pinpricks of light amongst the black. His heart ached for both of them – if only they could find strength in each other. It was his own fault for not telling Scully the truth…she would know just how much Walter needed her right now. 

An alien approached him again and his concentration was broken. The pain broke through once more. He opened his eyes and heard a high-pitched whirring, a double-pronged probe pushed itself into his nose. He couldn’t breathe, he opened his mouth and another probe quickly entered his mouth. White hot pain exploded through his soft palate as the probe drilled through it and he screamed until he passed out, grateful for oblivion. 

X*X*X 

Walter felt as if his heart had stopped. He gritted his teeth and managed to remain standing as Agent Doggett revealed the Mulder family headstone. 

William Mulder 1936-1995  
Tena Mulder 1941-2000  
Samantha Mulder 1964-1977  
FOX MULDER, 1961-2000 

“Did you know about a medical condition? Either of you?” 

“No,” Walter said quietly. He was still looking at the evidence in disbelief. The ATM receipts for Mulder’s visits to the graveyard, the tombstone, the medical records. All this evidence pointed to the secrets Mulder had kept from him the past few months. 

Doggett, meanwhile, was too wrapped up in his self-congratulatory account of his investigation to notice that his words were having a profound effect on the two listening. “A year ago, Agent Mulder was hospitalized. Ring a bell? Something to do with his brain?” 

Mulder screaming insanity in a padded room, tearing his hair out, pounding his head into the floor. The desperate scribbled message for help in Walter’s pocket…it hurt to think of the pain he’d been in. The desperation that had eaten at him as he’d tried to do something – anything to help. It wasn’t all that different from how he felt now. 

“An undiagnosable condition, it says. Irregular brain activity,” Doggett said with relish. The man was rolling now – he knew it. He was going to solve this case and be Kersh’s go-to-guy. Skinner’s fingers twitched and ached to ball into a fist and drive through that smug bastard’s face. 

“All right, but he recovered. There was a full recovery,” he insisted. Mulder had recovered – he’d been cured. 

“Was there?” Doggett asked. 

“You know Mulder; he would've told us if there was anything,” he said to Scully desperately. 

“Would he? Would he tell you about this? About his headstone?” Doggett was so sure of himself. 

Walter wanted to scream: ‘YES! Yes, he would have told me – I’m his lover! I would have known!’ 

But Doggett wouldn’t have listened to him if he had said it, anyway. Mulder had hidden things from them and he’d stolen the computers and files – that was all there was to it. He’d branded Mulder as a dying man with an obsession to prove at all costs. All that remained was to catch him at it and turn him in. Case closed. Another career made on the broken back of Mulder’s reputation. 

Skinner squared his jaw and turned to Scully, “I know what I saw. I not going to sit here and listen to this. I watched it happen.” 

X*X*X 

Skinner would never have believed his life had taken such an odd turn, but there he was sitting with Scully and the three crazy friends of Mulder who called themselves The Lone Gunmen, discussing how they were going to intercept a UFO and get Mulder off of it. Walter sat back in one of their questionable chairs and took off his glasses to pinch the bridge of his nose as he vaguely listened to the geeks argue amongst themselves. At one point Byers, the one in the three piece suit, put his hand on Walter’s arm and gave him a sad smile. 

“We won’t stop looking for him. He’d never let us give up looking for you, either. Or helping you.” Walter froze at that. 

Byers smiled and dropped his hand. “None of us know how far or how long this might go on. And what we might find if we succeed,” the bearded man looked away from him then, glancing at the other two hunched over their own computers. “When the time comes…he had us make I.D.’s, passports, accounts, everything you might need. Scully, too.”

Skinner swallowed hard. “You said anything I or Scully might need…what about Mulder?”

Byers looked back at him, his eyes sad. “He said he probably wouldn’t be needing them, but we made them for him, too.” Walter flashed on the tombstone, the year already printed out. Mulder. What had he told the Lone Gunmen that he hadn’t told his own lover? But before he could ask anything else they found evidence in Arizona and Scully made the leap to Gibson Praise and they were booking tickets as fast as they could. 

Maybe…just maybe they could still win this.

X*X*X 

He’d woken alone and desperately thirsty. A good sign, perhaps, that the pain had subsided enough for him to notice other discomforts. His face was stretched painfully taut and the bones in his wrists and ankles ached dully. Mulder supposed he must’ve been given something for the pain, though, or it would have been unbearable. He sat in the bright light and waited. He knew that he had to hang onto his sanity somehow or he’d break completely. 

The only thing he could hang onto was the knowledge that Scully and Walter were doing everything they could to find him. Even if he knew their chances were slim in being able to do anything to save him. Stretching his senses out again he searched for the two bright lights of his loved ones. Skinner was, as always, a beacon of light – he found him right away. Desperate/scared/angry – he shined in determination. He was searching – he was close. Scully was a fainter light, but growing stronger. They were closing in on him. 

Hope flared within him as he realized just how close they were. The hope stayed within him even as another alien appeared at his side and activated the device above him. A circular saw began to spin and he screamed as it cut deeply into his chest and belly. 

X*X*X 

Walter:

They had been following someone or something that looked like Mulder (and yet was not) for too damn long in the hot desert. The fact that it turned out not to be Mulder filled him with mixed feelings. Part of him was grateful that Doggett wasn’t right about Mulder doing those things and seeking out Gibson Praise to possibly hurt him, but there was a also a part of him that had desperately wanted it to be his lover so he could take him in his arms and probably shake him to death for putting him through all this.  
Scully, at least, seemed to finally throw herself into the search along with him for the first time since the abduction had taken place. She’d fought him tooth and nail at the Lone Gunmen, but somewhere between there and the desert she’d found new strength and courage to fight for Mulder. It was heartening to know Walter finally had someone else to depend on in their search. Doggett was definitely Kersh’s lapdog, but he had shown some hope of realizing that and wanting to break free. Perhaps the man had some potential after all. 

But for now he had to protect the child at his side. Gibson Praise had been hard to find – even for several trained FBI agents. He had to make sure the boy got the proper medical treatment he needed for his leg and then maybe they could get a few more answers. He stood beside the bedside as a doctor entered, white coat and scrubs, but empty handed. 

“Gibson Praise?” the doctor asked the boy on the bed. His eyes were intense and lacking in bedside manner, even for an ER doctor. The boy didn’t respond to the doctor, but looked up at Skinner with widened eyes. Instinct made Walter reach for his gun an instant before the doctor leaped at him. They struggled over the gun, the other man was far stronger than he looked. Gibson scrambled off the bed and out of sight. Walter managed to get his gun aimed at the doctor and squeezed off a round into the man’s shoulder. Pain flared in his eyes and he gasped, trying desperately to wipe the tears away and keep his eyes on the man in front of him, but it was too much. He gasped again, finding it hard to breathe as he felt himself being picked up. 

He’d failed to protect the boy – he’d failed Mulder, too. Walter could only hope Scully was safe. 

X*X*X 

Gibson could sense him, but Mulder couldn’t communicate with him – not clearly enough to warn them all. The frustration made it that much more difficult to concentrate. 

Mulder waited desperately for something to happen. He could sense Scully and Walter so close – so close…  
Scully was calling for him. “Mulder?!” 

//“Scully! Scully!”// He screamed with his voice and with his mind, but she couldn’t hear him. Couldn’t find him. Another person came to her and took her away. 

Walter needed her, though – Mulder stopped calling for her as she looked for him. The hunter was there – posing as his lover, looking for Gibson. Mulder prayed she would get there in time to save them both. 

//Walter – hang on!// He couldn’t feel his lover, though. 

//Please, Walter…don’t die…// he cried his first real tears since the abduction. He couldn’t cry for himself, but he could cry for his lover. Why hadn’t they had more time together? Why had he gone into the damn forest in the first place? He should have stayed with Walter. Should have shared his illness with him. Should have told him about Scully and the damn fertility attempts. He should have shared everything with him. 

They’d hadn’t had enough time… 

X*X*X 

Walter woke in the hospital and instantly wished he hadn’t. His head felt like it had been split open with a dull axe. He groaned and squinted into the bright lights above him. His vision was blurry – where were his glasses? 

Mulder! Gibson! His fingers scrabbled along the table beside his bed, knocking over a water pitcher before he found his glasses. Struggling out of bed, he yanked his IV out and headed out the door. 

“Whoa – AD Skinner, sir. I don’t think you’re supposed to be out of bed, yet.” Doggett scolded him. 

Walter growled at him and vented his frustration on him. “Where’s Gibson? Where’s Scully?” 

Doggett spread his hands out to show he wasn’t hiding them. “Gibson is fine – he’s resting and has some antibiotics for his infection. I just left Agent Scully resting in her own room. Why don’t you go back to bed and you can visit them later?” 

Skinner was tempted to argue, but decided the best way to deal with the situation was to appear to cooperate. He waited until Doggett was sure he was back in bed and left the hallway before searching for his clothes and leaving the hospital AMA. 

He didn’t want to go back to his apartment. He didn’t want to go to a bar, he was still woozy enough to know he wasn’t quite ready for his much needed drink just yet. Instead, he somehow ended up at #42 Hegal Place, lonely and feeling increasingly light headed. He skipped the living room and couch – that was Mulder’s thing to do. He headed towards the bedroom and the scent of Mulder on his pillow.  
Only when he entered the room he found things weren’t where he had left it. The blue shirt was gone and the bed was mussed even more than before. 

“Doggett,” he growled to himself. The man must’ve gone through the apartment and taken things – rifled through Mulder’s belongings and ruined it. Ruined all he had left of Mulder! 

He sunk down on the bed and stared at the pillow Mulder had always used. Strands of dark red hair were strewn over it. He picked up the pillow and sniffed – perfume.  
Scully. 

He pictured her there, lying in Mulder’s bed, taking his shirt to wear at night. Acting like Mulder’s lover.  


Carrying Mulder’s baby. 

Walter howled as he threw the pillow against the nearby wall and began stripping the bed of the soiled sheets and bedspread. 

Damn her! Damn him! How could they do this to him?! 

How could Mulder cheat on him?! How could he leave him?! Walter stopped once the bed was completely stripped down to the mattress and threw himself on it as he cried. 

Damn him…damn him… How could he leave him like this? Mulder!! 

X*X*X 

Mulder was full of anguish as he felt the pain and anger washing through his lover. He longed to be there – to hold him – to explain. But he couldn’t. He lay there, trapped, and looked on as six bounty hunters with stoic expressions stepped up to surround him.  
The ship was departing. He may never see Walter and Scully again. His heart was breaking. Both on Earth and wherever it was he was going...


End file.
